Italian government orders increased local content
October 3, 2017
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
The Italian government has issued a decree imposing increased local content quotas on national TV channels. Italian TV channels must now increase their output of Italian movies and TV series aired during primetime hours (6pm to 11pm), and also make compulsory content investments, subject to severe sanctions.
In practice, this means that each national TV channel will have to air at least one Italian movie or TV series per week in prime time (two in the case of public broadcaster RAI).
The decree will be implemented by 2020. The Communications Authority (AgCom) will check compliance and sanctions include fines of up to €5 million, or 2 per cent of turnover.
In addition, the decree also introduces programming and investment obligations on Netflix, Amazon and other on-demand platforms, including the early adoption of the European Directive that is in the process of being approved.